Texas tort law is the set of rules that lets you sue someone for money when their conduct injures you or kills a family member. Most of it sits in the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Three features shape nearly every case: you must be 50 percent or less at fault to recover anything, certain damages are capped by statute, and you generally have two years from the injury to file suit.
The Three Types of Tort Claims
Tort claims in Texas fall into three buckets, and the one that fits your situation determines what you have to prove.
Negligence covers careless conduct and is by far the most common. To win, you show the other party owed you a duty of care, failed to meet it, and caused you actual harm. The yardstick is what a reasonably careful person would have done in the same spot. A driver who runs a red light has breached a duty every driver owes.
Intentional torts involve conduct the defendant chose. Assault, battery, and false imprisonment are the classic examples. Because the wrongdoer acted on purpose (or knew harm was substantially certain to follow), these claims can support both compensation and punitive awards.
Strict liability holds a party responsible regardless of how careful they were, and in Texas it most often applies to defective products. If a design flaw or manufacturing error makes a product unreasonably dangerous and it injures you, the manufacturer is liable even if it followed every industry standard. The question is the condition of the product, not the care of the maker.
How Fault Affects What You Recover
Texas uses proportionate responsibility under Chapter 33. A jury assigns each party a percentage of blame, and your recovery depends on where your own percentage lands.
The critical line is 50 percent. If a jury finds you more than 50 percent responsible for your own injuries, you recover nothing.1State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 33.001 – Proportionate Responsibility At 51 percent, you get zero. Defense lawyers know this and will push hard to put your share above the line.
If your fault is 50 percent or less, the court reduces your award by your own percentage.2State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 33.012 – Amount of Recovery A $100,000 verdict with you 20 percent at fault pays $80,000.
When Multiple Defendants Share Blame
With more than one defendant, each generally pays only their own percentage. The exception matters: a defendant found more than 50 percent at fault becomes jointly and severally liable, meaning you can collect the entire judgment from that one defendant even if the others cannot pay their shares.3State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 33.013 – Amount of Liability Joint and several liability also applies to defendants who acted with specific intent to harm in connection with certain serious crimes, including murder, sexual assault, and aggravated kidnapping.
Punitive Damages and Their Limits
Exemplary damages — the Texas term for punitive damages — punish especially bad conduct rather than compensate loss. The standard to get them is higher than for ordinary negligence. You must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from fraud, malice, or gross negligence, and the jury must be unanimous on both liability and amount.4State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 41.003 – Standards for Recovery of Exemplary Damages
Gross negligence has a precise two-part definition in Texas. The conduct must involve an extreme degree of risk, meaning a high likelihood of serious injury or death rather than some generic chance of harm. And the defendant must have actually known about that risk and gone ahead anyway.5State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 41.001 – Definitions “Should have known” is not enough. You need proof of actual awareness.
Even when a jury finds gross negligence, the award is capped. Exemplary damages cannot exceed the greater of $200,000, or two times the economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $750,000.6State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 41.008 – Limitation on Amount of Recovery
Caps on Medical Malpractice Awards
Texas enacted sweeping tort reform in 2003 that placed hard caps on noneconomic damages in healthcare liability cases. Noneconomic damages cover pain, suffering, mental anguish, and similar losses without a fixed price tag. Against all physicians in a single case, those damages are capped at $250,000 per claimant no matter how many doctors are sued.7State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.301 – Limitation on Noneconomic Damages
Healthcare institutions like hospitals carry a separate $250,000 cap per claimant. If more than one unrelated hospital is named, the combined institutional cap rises to $500,000, but no single institution pays more than $250,000.7State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.301 – Limitation on Noneconomic Damages In the worst case — physicians plus two institutions — the total noneconomic exposure is $750,000.
Economic damages such as hospital bills, lost wages, and future medical costs are not capped. In catastrophic injury cases, lifetime care costs can dwarf the noneconomic limits, so the distinction matters a great deal. Texas also restricts recovery of past medical expenses to amounts actually paid or incurred, which means you cannot claim the sticker price of a hospital bill your insurer negotiated down.
Suing a Government Entity in Texas
State and local governments in Texas are protected by sovereign immunity and cannot be sued for most harms. The Texas Tort Claims Act in Chapter 101 opens a narrow door.
The waiver covers two main situations. One is injury caused by a government employee’s use of a motor vehicle or motor-driven equipment while on the job — getting hit by a city bus or a state maintenance truck, for instance. The other is injury caused by a dangerous condition on government-owned property, provided a private landowner would be liable in the same circumstances.8Texas Public Law. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 101.021 – Governmental Liability
You must give the government written notice of the claim within six months of the incident, describing the injury, when and where it happened, and what occurred.9State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 101.101 – Notice Cities often impose even shorter deadlines through their charters. The requirement is excused only if the government already has actual knowledge of the death, injury, or property damage, and that is a risky exception to rely on. Miss the window and the case is dead.
Damages against the government are capped far below what a private defendant would face. Claims against the state or a municipality are limited to $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence for bodily injury or death, with a separate $100,000 cap for property damage. Local government units other than municipalities are capped at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence.10State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 101.023 – Limitation on Amount of Liability
When a Death Is Involved
A death from wrongful conduct creates two separate claims under Texas law, and they compensate different losses.
A wrongful death action belongs to the family. Only the deceased’s spouse, children, and parents can bring it. Siblings, grandparents, and other relatives have no standing. Recoverable losses include the deceased’s earning capacity, the inheritance the survivors would have received, and the loss of companionship and emotional support. If none of the eligible family members files within three months of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate must bring the action on their behalf.11State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 71.004 – Benefitting From and Bringing Action
A survival action belongs to the estate and continues the claims the deceased could have brought if they had lived: the physical pain they endured before death, the medical bills from the injury, and funeral expenses. These damages pass through the estate under the will, or under Texas intestacy rules if there is no will.12State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 71.021 – Survival of Cause of Action
Deadlines for Filing a Texas Tort Claim
Most tort claims in Texas carry a two-year statute of limitations. For personal injury, the clock starts on the day of the incident. For wrongful death, it starts on the date of death, which can be later than the date of injury if the person survived for some time.13State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003 – Two-Year Limitations Period After two years, the courthouse door closes permanently.
Government claims add a second deadline that comes much sooner. Written notice to the entity is due within six months of the incident, and city charters can shorten that further.9State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 101.101 – Notice If a government body may be responsible for your injury, treat the six-month notice date as your real deadline and work backward from there.